Goose The Nun release dark yet upbeat record

As Bristol pop punk outfit Goose The Nun release the raw sound of their new EP Skeletons, we catch up with frontman Austen Morgan to find out more about the inspiration behind this.

How did Goose the Nun come about? 

We’ve known each other for years. I met Stevie when I was in secondary school, he was the drummer in my first band when I was 16. I met Luke when I was at college, mainly through Skateboarding. He was playing guitar in an acoustic duo at the time. I stole him from that band and we played together in a five piece called Delayed FX that did pretty well, but I left in 2003 to go to uni, and from there London. I moved to Bristol in 2012 and Stevie was already here so it was a no-brainer to start working on new music. I called up Luke and he’s been commuting to Bristol from North Devon ever since. The name came from a story I had heard about Lamb of God, apparently they used to be called Burn the Priest. I thought that burning a priest was a bit beyond the pale. I’d never burn a priest, I’d goose a nun though. 

Where and how often do you practice? 

We practice as a full band once a week at Maverick Studios on Soundwell, it’s in an old office building with a swingers club above it. The whole place is covered in Graffiti by a really talented guy called Jac Teach (well worth looking him up). It’s one of those awesome low key practice spaces where they really just leave you to do your own thing. Luke our Bassist lives in North Devon and commutes 2 hours each way for practice and gigs so it’s important we make the most of our time together. Every practice gets recorded on to a DAT recorder and we work on our parts across the internet during the week.

Tell us about the new record? 

This record was a bit of an exorcism for me. It was written and recorded over a really weird time. When I began writing the record I was grieving the death of my father, and was definitely working through some things in my writing. Then as we were writing I became a Dad myself, which was amazing but totally changed my world view… and then I lost my Mother which turned my world around again. So this record is really me trying to navigate what all those life changing events meant to me. For what could be described as a pretty dark time I think the record has come out pretty upbeat in the end.

“Lighter Than Air” is really a celebration of how someone made you feel, Second Hand Smile is an ode to the protective feeling you get for someone you love, and After the Fall is an allegorical tale of the relationship between parent and child told from the perspective of a disappointed deity. It’s really only Skeletons itself that’s very dark in subject matter, but that song rocks hardest, so it’s all a balance.  

I think from my perspective we’ve done the subject matter justice ,and it’s something I’ve done to death now, so for me that bookends a period of my life and now it’s time to put a lid on that subject matter. We’re writing the next record now and it’s going to be more politicised.

The record itself was recorded by our good friend Scot Mackenzie from New Cut Studios, he has a mobile recording rig that we brought into a space above City & Moon backline hire in BS4. It was really important to us to keep things as local as possible, we’re a Bristol band and want to help support the scene that feeds us. It was recorded in three days in a live room with no autotune, click tracks or overdubs, there’s a bit of doubling on the vocals and guitars but basically what you here is what we played in one take. There’s a feeling in the band that there’s too much over produced music out there. For us music is a live art form, so to capture that as accurately as possible was our primary goal. 

Because of the recording ethos it’s never going to sound like a huge studio record, but our influences have always been more lo fi than that so it’s really there to stand alongside more punk/alt independent releases. I like it anyway, and that’s what matters most. To be proud of the work you produce. 

What would you compare it to? 

I don’t know if I would compare it to, but I can certainly hear the influences of Rise Against, Brand New, Deftones, Early Biffy Clyro, and BoySetsFire in the music. 

How do you rate the Bristol music scene? 

It’s awesome, there’s some great camaraderie between the bands and it has a really positive vibe. But it feels a bit fractured at the moment, like it never really recovered from losing the Croft. I think venues like the Mothers Ruin have got the right idea, regularly putting on free gigs for unknown local and touring bands to play their heart out. Fill your pub for free and bands can sell their merch if they’re any good.  

Any bands we need to particularly watch out for?

There are a few that we’ve played with that are really pushing boundaries but all in different ways. In Bristol, go and see a Broken Bones Gentlemans Club gig, they’re really flying the flag for Bristol Hardcore right now.  Outside of that, The Fallen State from North Devon have been out playing with Black Stone Cherry and Halestorm recently and are due to support Young Guns so they’re doing great work in Classic/Hard Rock, but for me Bad Sign from Croydon are just on fire at the moment, I genuinely don’t know when someone’s going to give in and just give those guys a deal.  

What next for you guys?

We’ve had the summer off from performing to go and do other things like get the record sorted and work on all the boring stuff behind being in a band, but we’ll be working on putting together a tour to support the record, it’s looking like it’ll come together in November now. We’re back in the studio this week working on new material, it’s sounding far angrier and more concerned with the wider world than this record which is far more introspective. I figure now that I’ve conquered my own demons I should start on someone else’s.

More info on Goose the Nun at www.goosethenun.co.uk or to buy the record, click here.